


Notice

by suckerformagic



Series: Sensitive [2]
Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Because someone needs to, Huge thank you to RareCoincidinks for being my wonderful and patient beta, Lamps make terrible weapons, Summary is vague as always, and Todd will protect dirk, and dirks not exactly helping himself, okay but dirk has a bad past we all know this, so feedback is very welcome, so my inference is reasonable, still new to the whole fan fiction thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-15 23:26:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9263525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suckerformagic/pseuds/suckerformagic
Summary: Todd hears a crash in the night.





	

Todd woke to a large crash in the kitchen, followed by someone quietly muttering, “ _ shit. _ ”   
  
At first he assumed burglars, but who would try to steal from his shoddy apartment? Maybe a raccoon. Ah, but raccoons can't speak. Maybe it was a raccoon that had learned English in a extravagant attempt to stand up for animal rights.   
  
God, he sounded like Dirk.   
  
_ Dirk _ .   
  
Todd sat bolt upright in his bed, suddenly very awake. What if Blackwing had finally come to take Dirk away?   
  
Todd stumbled out of his bed as quietly as he could, grabbing  the closest thing he could find as a weapon. He held it menacingly in both hands and gently pushed his door open with a  toe. He took a breath, then lunged out into the living room, prepared to see hundreds of guys with guns filling up the apartment.   
  
Instead he only saw one, and he wasn't holding a gun; rather,  a coffee mug, which he promptly dropped.   
  
“Todd!” exclaimed Dirk.   
  
“Dirk.” replied Todd dumbly.   
  
“Why are you holding a lamp?” Todd looked at said lamp in his hands and it suddenly dawned upon him that lamps were not exactly ideal weapons.   
  
“Er… I thought you were a burglar,” Todd lied, setting the lamp down.   
  
Dirk still hadn't moved from where he had dropped the mug, even though the coffee was currently inching around his shoes.    
  
“Well I am certainly not a burglar- though I have committed the occasional burgle... however, aside those few times when I have had to act in a burglar-ish way- which were quite justified I assure you- I certainly am not a burglar, just Dirk Gently, you very non-burglary friend!” He flashed Todd a weird smile. Only then did he seem to notice the coffee and ceramic shards pooled at his feet.   
  
“Oh, dear,” he muttered, before turning and rushing off to the kitchen. Todd sighed; he had liked that mug.   
  
Dirk returned with an entire roll of paper towels and started to frantically push at the spreading puddle. Todd realized that Dirk was still wearing his clothes from the previous day- he hadn't even removed his jacket.   
  
There were dark bags under his eyes, and a  light tremor in his hands as he picked up shards of red ceramic.   
  
Todd blamed the fact that he had just woken up, or maybe that Dirk wore the same stupid grin no matter how he was feeling, or maybe that he had assumed that Dirk would tell him if something was wrong.   
  
“Dirk, when was the last time you slept?”   
  
Dirk froze, giving a sheepish grin.   
  
“Er, you see that depends on your exact definition of what qualifies as sleep- say perhaps you were to-”   
  
“Dirk.” Todd interrupted, crouching down next to him. Stone faced and unwilling to accept roundabout excuses, he took the paper towels and ceramic from Dirk’s unsteady hands. He had expected Dirk to resist, but  instead he just stared at Todd with big, sad eyes, and said nothing.   
  
Todd stared back, knowing that he would win this. And he did, for a couple moments later Dirk mumbled, “Tuesday.”   
  
Todds jaw dropped. “Dirk that was three days ago!”   
  
Dirk started to quietly ramble in a soft voice. “Well, yes, but if you tally up the amount of oversleeping I have done in my life and then consider how much sleep the body really needs-”   
  
“ _ Three days _ ,” Todd interrupted once more, “ _ Three days,  _ Dirk.” 

 

Instead of meeting Todd’s hard stare, Dirk just looked down at the spilled coffee.   
  
“I know,” he muttered quietly, leaning back against the kitchen counter. Todd stared at him for a  moment longer before hurriedly mopping  up the rest of the mess. Dirk didn't move or speak, just stared off to the side silently.   
  
Todd wasn't really sure what Dirk's boundaries were. Blackwing obviously, but he didn’t know  what other lines the man wouldn’t  want him to cross. He knew he’d  have to tread carefully from here.   
  
After the last smears of coffee were cleaned and all the ceramic in the trash, Todd busied himself with the kettle. He glanced at Dirk every couple seconds, but Dirk didn't look back. He didn't meet Todd’s eyes again until a cup of steaming peppermint tea was shoved into his hands.   
  
“You really didn't need to,” he said softly, in his “I'm-Dirk-Gently-and-no-matter-what-everything-is-absolutely-fine-so-stop-giving-me-sympathy” voice. He only used that voice when talking about Blackwing. Todd's concern skyrocketed.   
  
“Yes, I really did.” The floor was not a very comfortable place to sit, but Todd didn't really want to try and convince Dirk to move, so instead he grabbed a pillow and a fuzzy blanket from the couch. He tossed the blanket over a wide-eyed Dirk and placed the pillow against the counter across from him before settling into it with a sigh.   
  
“You haven't been sleeping.” He returned to his best hard, serious stare. Dirk looked at a place somewhere above Todd’s left ear.   
  
“Correct.”   
  
“Why?”   
  
“I can't.”   
  
“You can't? Like, you have insomnia?”   
  
“No, I don't have insomnia, I simply… can't.” Dirk punctuated this with a vague wave of his hand. He still wasn't quite looking at Todd.   
  
“So… you have no problem sleeping, but… you can't?”   
  
Dirk nodded and looked down into his tea for a moment, he hadn't drunk any yet and it didn't seem like he was planning to, but he held it very close, as if it was his only source of heat.   
  
“Can't, or won't?”   
  
Dirk looked straight into Todd's eyes and stated very factually, “Can’t.”   
  
Todd sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Dirk had a very specific understanding of things, but he always seemed to jump to the end and not enlighten anyone as to what went on in the middle. It was really, very frustrating.   
  
“You're going to have to elaborate, Dirk, I'm afraid I don't understand.”   
  
Dirk shifted the mug in his lap. “I..erm… well, I get hunches and well, then I can't sleep and that's that really.”   
  
“Hunches?” Todd really wasn't following, but Dirk needed to get it out.   
  
“Yes, hunches.”   
  
“Hunches… about what exactly?”   
  
“Nightmares,” Dirk shrugged casually, but Todd started. Dirk Gently got nightmares? Well, it made sense he supposed, considering that Blackwing had been very present through a large portion of his life, and Dirk still wouldn't talk about it. But… he hadn't said anything? Not once? Todd tried to act like this didn’t scare him as much as it did.   
  
“So…”  He started slowly, “you have hunches… about nightmares? That you'll get nightmares?” Dirk nodded fervently.   
  
“Exactly, and how could I possibly sleep if I know what will happen. I can’t.” Todd blinked.   
  
“So, you get a hunch...that you'll have nightmares… so you don't sleep… so that you don't have nightmares?”   
  
“Yes, Todd, that's what I just said.” Dirk waved his hand again, dismissively, and finally took a sip of his tea. Not really to drink it, Todd thought, but moreso just to have something to do. “Ooh, I love peppermint.”   
  
Todd just stared at his bizarre, strange, sad friend.   
  
“So, erm, I guess you should probably go back to bed now Todd- big day and all that, off you pop.”   
  
“Dirk-” Todd began.   
  
“Just go back to bed Todd, I'm fine.”   
  
“No, you aren't, we have to talk about this.”   
  
“Not much to do is there? And if only one of us gets to sleep I’d much rather it be you.” Todd's mind was moving in circles, maybe it was just because he was tired, but he couldn't think of anything except the fact that Dirk  _ wasn't sleeping _ , and he couldn't think of any way to help him.   
  
“Couldn't you just… try?” Dirk sighed in exasperation.   
  
“I have tried, Todd! Do you think that I don't want to sleep? I try, and try, and think ‘this hunch is wrong, this time there won't be nightmares’, but when I think there will be, there always is. Everything is connected, and the universe doesn't lie; if I'm going to get nightmares I will, there's no avoiding it- so I can't sleep and will just wait until the next time that I know I won't have any.”   
  
“...is there... is there anything I can do?”   
  
Dirk sighed. “I don't think so, Todd.” Suddenly he looked a lot paler, a lot younger. The bags under his eyes darker.  _ This man _ .   
  
Todd stood, and approached the pot of still hot water. He pulled out another mug and made himself his own cup. He had never much liked tea, but he needed the motion. Then he moved his pillow to the counter next to Dirk, and settled back down onto it. Dirk stared at him.   
  
“What are you doing?”   
  
“Well if you can't sleep I'm not going to either.” 

 

Dirk set his mug aside and started to protest, but Todd fixed him with a determined stare.   
  
“You can't stop me, if you’re going to be awake, I will be too.” _ I won't let you be alone. _ _   
_ _   
_ Dirk’s eyes went a bit glassy, and Todd stared purposely across the kitchen in front of him.. After a few minutes of quiet sniffing and quite a bit of eye rubbing, Todd heard a mumbled, “thanks.”   
  
Todd simply nodded and continued his staring contest with the toaster, wondering what it was like to know what happened before it did.   
  
\--   
  
Todd woke gently this time, blinking into the first morning sunbeams, and immediately almost dropped his mug of undrunk tea. He managed to keep it from spilling, barely, and set it aside.   
  
He tried to stretch, but suddenly became aware of the heavy detective slumped against his shoulder.   
  
Heavy _ asleep  _ detective _. _ __   
  
Todd grinned.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> I would like to clarify my intentions with this work, because I realize they may have been a bit foggy. Dirk is not psychic, we all know this, and he doesn't actually know for sure beforehand whether or not he will have nightmares, rather he can tap into the "fundamental connectedness of all things" and has a vague sort of insight into the relationships between things. He can kind of get a sense of how different factors line up, and within this story he has stumbled upon how he can use that to know if he will have nightmares. He isn't exactly right though, and because of the extreme emotional nature of these hunches, he can be a bit presumptuous in his assumptions. Dirk doesn't know whether or not he will sleep well, but he has a pretty good guess and trusts his intuition more than logic. However, knowing you won't sleep well leads to not sleeping well, so in a bit of a round about way he does this to himself. It's alright though, Todd's there, and Todd makes everything better. Thanks for reading all of that, and if you are still interested please check out the first work in this series called Listen, I promise it's better than this one.


End file.
